2019-05-31 05:59:11 +00:00
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# Sunbeam TCP Relay v0.1
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#### Elizabeth Evelene Amelia Diode, June 2019
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#### AGPL v3
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### Oh no, what is it this time?
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Sunbeam is a simple and fast multi-endpoint TCP relay for
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for um
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2019-05-31 06:10:13 +00:00
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we swear we had a perfectly reasonable use in mind, but we honestly can't remember it now.
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2019-05-31 05:59:11 +00:00
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Basically it just lets clients connect from anywhere, takes data from them, and redistributes
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it to all the other connected clients. It's written with an asynchronous structure and
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nonblocking I/O, meaning it should be pretty fast, ideally fast enough to handle audio streams
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and stuff.
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We originally envisioned this as a similar (and similarly-cursed) project to Epistlebox, which
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would play the role of an online chat platform to complement the other's terrible imitation of
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email. You can indeed use it for that purpose, e.g. by running
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`nc [server address] 55555`
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on each of the clients, typing messages, and pressing enter.
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2019-05-31 06:10:13 +00:00
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There is no way to tell which client a message originated from, so if you're planning on using
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this for a group chat (a very bad idea, to be sure) then you'll have to constantly remind each
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other who you are with each message.
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If you use it for audio with multiple sources, then the streams will interleave, and you'll end
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up with garbage. We don't really recommend doing that.
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This program is called "sunbeam" because of a particular plot device that we thought was clever
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in the sci-fi novel *The Three Body Problem* by Cixin Liu. A character discovers that, due to a
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particular plasma-driven mechanism inside the sun, it's possible to use the sun as a gigantic
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radio amplifier at certain frequencies - all you have to do is launch a radio beam into the
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photosphere with enough intensity, and it bounces back out with orders of magnitude more power.
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That's basically what this program does - you just aim your transmitter at it and start
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talking, and it lets you communicate with other receivers that you normally couldn't reach.
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